


Pain(t)

by mystyrust



Series: Ectober 2020 [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: "Graphic Depictions Of Violence" was the closest warning, Astronomy, Captivity, Ectober (Danny Phantom), Ectober Week 2020 (Danny Phantom), Flashback, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27194549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mystyrust/pseuds/mystyrust
Summary: Ectober week 2020Day 1:Fog/ SplatterAll is lost, and Danny reminisces about what he once had.
Series: Ectober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985209
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53





	Pain(t)

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure I'll make it through all Ectober prompts but here's for trying

“If you put a thin layer of white paint on a toothbrush, then pull back the bristles like this really slowly, the white splatter will look like stars.”

Danny vehemently disagreed.

“It looks fake!” he said. “Just a bunch of white dots arranged randomly on a painting of the sky. Shouldn’t we at least paint …one constellation or one star system in there or something?”

The art teacher chuckled.

“To the untrained eye, it appears random enough, so that the viewer can appreciate the beauty of the painting and the skill of the artist. But if you insist, you may attempt to paint actual models of constellations on your canvas for this art project.”

And Danny rose to the challenge. Or, it was more accurate to say he _attempted_ to. He wasn’t able to paint constellation patterns on the night sky without the white paint weirdly smearing on the dark background, and he had to start over a few times. Tucker couldn’t understand why Danny didn’t just finish the project the easy way out – more time to play Doomed, after all. Sam, on the other hand, supported Danny’s enthusiasm, even if she didn’t understand why.

In the end, Danny used the toothbrush splatter method and pretended that his scenic painting was in an alternate universe where the constellations were different.

Danny knew his grades were shit. He’d never get to visit space or even work at NASA. So this was the next best thing for him.

He genuinely liked art class though. He could paint and visit places without leaving his couch. He hated how he barely had time to do art after he got his ghost powers, and ghosts started attacking the town frequently. He was tempted to make a wish with Desiree for a week of no ghost attacks just to give him time to unwind and rest and indulge in his hobbies again, even if just a little.

When he was younger, his parents had gotten him glow in the dark stars to attach to his bedroom ceiling at night. Every month or so, he’d switch it to a different constellation, depending on what he was reading about in his constellation encyclopedia.

The Fentons liked to visit museums and laboratories during the summer, to foster an interest in science and learning in their children. For Danny, that meant he got to visit planetarium exhibits and observatories, watching presentations about telescopes that captivated him in a way that nothing in school could hold his attention.

Eventually, his friends bought him a planetarium projector as a birthday gift – it was meant to show quite a few constellations to scale, but the stars wouldn’t align correctly when the lights hit the surfaces of his desk, lamp, and closet. Cassiopeia was stretched out too fat, Aries was overlapping with Scorpius too much. Orion stretched and distorted over his dresser, but it was in the correct spot relative to other constellations. It wasn’t accurate, but… it was beautiful. When he turned off all the lights in his room and turned on the projector, he felt like he was camping under the stars.

Danny could see why the splatter paint method works so well.

He really missed his friends and family. When the GIW took Danny, they made it very clear that he would never see them again. His walls were barren and white – no windows, no nightlight. He missed his planetarium projector. He missed seeing the night sky.

But this time, the walls weren’t barren. Today’s session was particularly painful – when the needles and knives were done with and Danny was shoved back into his cell, his ectoplasm smeared against the floor and wall. A change from the barren white that he was so sick and tired of seeing.

Danny’s hands were shaking as he tried covering the long gash across his arm – but he had no cloth to soak up the ectoplasm as it seeped in between his fingers.

His eyes glazed over as he leaned against the wall, taking in the splashes of ectoplasm against the floor. Maybe he wasn’t thinking quite right, but the splattered ectoplasm against the white floor _definitely_ looked like some abstract painting that could sell for hundreds to some eccentric collector. Would that be enough for Danny to buy his way out of this GIW facility?

It’s not easy painting when Danny only had a single color to use – a weird, bright neon green. A neon green that was flowing inside his body. Because he was a freak who didn’t bleed red like everyone else. But maybe he could dilute the ectoplasmic green with his sweat and tears, to make it a better color. If he’d reverted to his human form, maybe Danny could bleed red again and then he’d have another color to use – but for some reason, he can’t. Danny isn’t sure if it’s because he was injected with something that prevented him from changing form, or if he was hurt so much that he went from a half ghost to a full ghost at some point.

He should add some constellations to the canvas, just to be sure, Danny thought. He doesn’t have a paint brush or paint, but maybe he can improvise and use his hair. Danny isn’t sure he remembers what constellations or the clear night sky looked like anymore, but to the untrained eye, the splatter method should look just like it.


End file.
